Micromon: Junji's Game
by Axolotl of the Light
Summary: A boy suddenly gets whisked away into a strange world inside his phone. Now, he has to find a way to get back to his home as he tries to become a top Tamer, making an assortment of friends, rivals, and even some enemies. Chapter 3: Tutorial.
1. My Ordinary Life Ends

**Chapter One  
**

**My Ordinary Life Ends**

"…train and capture over one hundred-and-thirty plus Micromon…"

Someone tugged my jacket with a bit of force. I was snapped out of my daydreamy reverie. "C'mon, dude! Wake up, will ya!"

I looked around me. My best friend, Leon Mathews, was staring me in the face, holding my shoulders tightly. He let out a deep exasperated breath when he saw I was finally back to Earth. "Geez, Junji… You're always snapping out of it like that," Leon muttered under his breath, and then he looked back at me seriously. "Still, though. Why don't you just try it out? Micromon is seriously the most epic thing around these days! I really thought you would have been, like, the first one to try it."

I stared at him for a moment with a fixed gaze. After a slow-moving moment, I finally turned my head away, coincidentally meeting with a replay of the Micromon commercial from behind a store window. My expression remained indifferent as I watched the two-minute promo video for what seemed like the umpteenth time.

"Hello? Junji?" Leon shook me again, his voice raising with annoyance. "Back to Earth here!"

I blinked slowly, leaning back on the heels of my shoes and looking up at the sky, as I stretched my arms up and cradled my head. "Why?" I finally broke my extended silence with a very noticeable bored tone to my voice. "It's just some crazy fad that will blow over soon, anyways."

Leon blinked from where he was at my side. He sighed once more and then tugged on my cheek forcefully. "Listen, man! Stop being a total downer. You're making me depressed, Junji," he let go of my now-sore cheek, watching dismissively as I rubbed the red spot on my face. "Whatever happened to the Junji I knew back in first grade, huh? The Junji that would shout out randomly about his passions and recklessly charged forward for things he believed in?" He gazed at me half-skeptically.

I grew silent again as I returned his stare, withdrawing my hand from my cheek.

Later on, I had returned home from school after saying goodbye to Leon at the street corner. As I set my schoolbag on the floor and kicked off my shoes, I half-ignored the frustrated sighs of my father coming from the dining room. It wasn't much of a concern to me as it had become something regular for me to hear ever since my mother had died of illness several years ago and my older sister went off to live on the campus of her college.

My father was an ordinary businessman in his late forties with short dark graying hair. Up to when my sister had left, he was also considerably dependable. However, things hadn't been going so well after mom had died and left us with so many hospital bills to pay off. And then, shortly after it had just become me and my dad living in our small apartment, we had quickly begun to grow in debt with various other bills. As a poor means of escape, to top it all off, my father had also become a rather heavy drunk. So much so, in fact, that our apartment stunk of alcohol and cigarette smoke, and the cleanliness and order quickly declined.

Briefly thinking about just retiring to my room for the night, I decided to walk up to where dad was, stopping at the opposite end of the table. "Dad?" I spoke almost emotionlessly. I had to repeat myself as if he had not yet heard me come home. "Dad? I'm home."

Dad finally looked up from a pile of papers. "Oh, Junji. What are you doing?"

I didn't respond immediately. I'd grown accustomed to staring apparently, sort of blanking out on the spot. Half-dazed, I gave a reply. "I'm going to be in my room," I said after a while with a slight shrug. "How is Kim doing?"

Kim was my sister, short for Kimberly Penelope Andrews. Although she had left for college only a couple of months ago, she had kept a promise where she would send a monthly letter, keeping us updated of how she was doing. I'm glad she hadn't completely forgotten about Dad and me.

"Oh, right." Dad shuffled around through the papers in front of him and handed me a still-sealed envelope. "Do you want something for dinner?" He rubbed his forehead tiredly.

As I reached for the letter to take it from my dad, I shook my head simply. "No, thanks. I'm not that hungry." I said dully, and retreated to my room without much of a second thought, leaving my father alone once more. "I'll tell you what Kim has to say, later."

The moment I shut myself into my room, I dug out a bag of potato chips that I kept in my desk drawer. It had become sort of a routine for me. I couldn't remember the last time Dad and I had sat down together to eat dinner; or any meal for that matter. I plopped down lazily on my bed next to my cat Freddie J. Bear, who was truthfully practically old enough to be my great uncle, as all he did was pop open one silvery-blue eye to check on me before embedding his head back into my pillow. I opened the bag of chips and stuffed my hand inside, taking care to remove the letter without getting any crumbs on it.

_Hiya, Little Brother!_

My eyes scanned the first few lines, and I couldn't help but chuckle inwardly at my sister's chicken-scratch for handwriting.

_My classes have been going great so far. I'll be taking an overseas trip in a few weeks to study for a bit, so that means you won't be able to cry for your sister anytime soon. :) I hope you and Dad are doing well without me - I still worry that I shouldn't have left so soon with everything going on. Oh…_

The already-small words drifted into illegible scrawls for a couple of lines, and it took me an extra ten minutes to determine that she must have gotten distracted or something and just forgot to engage the little part of the pencil on top that is specifically meant to retrace your writing.

_...Anyways, sorry, I don't have a lot of time to write at the moment. I just hope you aren't forgetting to feed Freddie and yourself. That old cat gets very stingy when he hasn't had his tuna before bed…_

_Your Sister,_

_Kim_

_P.S. I know you're just trying to eat potato chips, Junji! You can't just live off of those every night. Eat something healthy, my adorable runt of a brother!_

I looked back over the letter several times after that, smirking each time at my sister's naggy-ness. Older sisters were like that, I guessed, but still.

Then something caught my eye before I could lie the letter next to me on the bed. It was a smaller script added a couple of spaces below the 'P.S.' part, as if added in a hurry.

_Oh, yeah, I got you something. I know you'll love it! Check your phone when you have a chance, will ya?_

"My phone?" I pondered to myself, Freddie's tail smacking me in the face teasingly as my eyes drifted to where my phone in question lay.

I knew my sister. She was the kind to play pranks and jokes, but she always meant well. I suppressed a groan as my curiosity was slowly peaking at what my sister's present could have been _this time_. Last time it was a winking green frog phone charm that just happened to say "World's Best Little Brother" in bold pink letters on the stomach. Needless to say it was still sitting on corner of my desk; I wasn't ever going out in public with that decorating my phone!

It wasn't long after that, after I had finished off my grandeur one-course meal of my small, snack-sized bag of Doritos that I heard my father suddenly break out into a fit of yelling from the dining room. Glass breaking notified me that he was throwing beer battles at the wall in his drunken anger, again. His exact words became muffled as I tried to tune him out as I dropped my head down onto my pillow next to Freddie, resting my arm over my face.

Kim's letter continued to scroll through my thoughts, as well as the mysterious three-month-early birthday gift that she had mentioned in fine print. I wasn't yet in the mood to check what it was, though, partly afraid or ashamed it was another thing like the frog phone charm.

A few seconds later, as if on cue, I heard a familiar _ring_, and I propped myself up on one elbow and reached for my phone. Could it have been a message from Kim saying what my present was? I stared at the screen for what seemed like hours. I had got an alert message from an app, okay, which actually surprised me a bit since I hardly had anything installed on my phone.

Freddie looked at me curiously, his tail flicking against my forearm. I rubbed his head roughly and sighed, "Might as well see what it is, right, Freddie? I bet it's something lame again," I glanced at him.

Freddie had this peculiar meow that sounded like the cross between a bear's growl and a stomach rumble that he replied with, as if to say _I don't know. It's your phone._ _Your sister. Leave me out of the drama._ I sat up as I watched him curl back on my pillow with a wide yawn and I turned back to look at the screen of my phone. "It's probably just some kind of spam," I thought aloud, as I began to type in the passcode of my phone. The strange thing about this alert message was that it didn't say what or who it was from, at all, whether it was from some kind of game or another kind of app. Or, my sister.

Immediately after my phone accepted the code and opened up to the home screen, which had a stylized background of some sort of small cartoony creature that I had drawn when I was, like, five or something, another message popped onto my phone. _Less than twenty percent of battery left._ That raised my eyebrows. My phone was literally just at more than eighty percent before I entered the passcode in. "Well, that's weird."

Before I could think to shuffle around for my phone charger, I felt a slight, almost unnoticeable sting in my hand, the one holding my phone that was like a cross between a sharp sting and being electrocuted.

I didn't make any motion to get up.

Another short message appeared on the screen after I clicked out of the first. _You have used almost all of your data for this month._ Okay, these were getting quite tedious. I was actually very data-conscious, never using much, partly because I didn't want to shove anymore bills onto my father's shoulders, and partly because I just didn't play much on my phone. Once again, I clicked out of the message, letting out a semi-heavy, exasperated sigh.

Yet another back-to-back message followed the second. This one took the cake, and made me really start to think that somebody had hacked into my phone and was just toying around with me. _Welcome to Pixekai, Player!_ The face of a cartoony professor seemed to mouth the words with a giant grin on his face. Just the name _Pixekai_ had resonated within me, I knew I had heard of it before, but I couldn't quite place where at the moment.

Then, without even being told to by the press of my finger, the message disappeared and the whole screen radiated with a swirl of bright green three-dimensional light. So much so, that it illuminated by face. Before I knew it, I found myself being sucked into the tiny screen of my phone, letting out a surprised gasp, as I was whisked away.

A scream rose out from the back of my throat as I felt myself being tossed around and falling, as if I was taking a ride in a never-ending tornado.

Finally, I hit ground. _Hard_. The impact surprised me so much that I released an _oomph_ as I laid there, chest breathing hard. It took another couple of moments before I could get my head together and push myself into a right-side up position. I rubbed the back of my head as I groaned, "Ouch…"

I blinked, slowly lowering my hand away from my head, and noticed for the first time that my surroundings were completely different from my bedroom. "What the…" My eyes grew wider with each passing second as I scanned my surroundings.

I was now somewhere in the midst of a lush, almost tropical looking forest with bright green grass and thick trees. Rows of thick long grass and flowers that would easily tickle my knees lined the trunks of the trees. "...Looks like I'm not in Kansas anymore, Freddie," I muttered half-sarcastically. (Freddie was actually nowhere in sight either.)

My reverie was broken when I looked down, however, having noticed a not-so-pleasant sound. The screen on my phone now adorned a thick crack that spanned from the top corner to the opposite bottom corner, diagonally across the screen. The screen was flashing red, as if it was in imminent danger. My expression grew irritable for obvious reasons, Dad was going to kill me when he found out my phone was broken. "Just great," I growled harshly under my breath. I bent down to pick up my now-useless phone.

My expression wavered when I examined the screen more closely. In the midst of the red flashing, there was yet another message. _Sufficient data acquired!_ _Normal Egg obtained!_ "Normal egg…" I echoed the message, confused.

Then, as if with the last of its life energy, my phone seemed to materialize a rather large tannish-brown egg with a craggy design decorating the lower half, and then a loud popping sound as my phone went completely dead.

So, that was it. That was the start of my adventure. I had been sucked into my phone after receiving a series of strange messages, dumped unceremoniously through a vortex, landing on the ground of an unfamiliar world, equipped only with a now-completely unusable phone and a strange Egg, with no current way of how to get back to where I came from. "Oh brother…" I let out a heavy sigh, facing my new companion.

Pocketing my phone, I reached to pick up the egg. "I guess we're stuck with each other, then…"


	2. Tamer

**Chapter Two**

**Tamer**

I groaned, kicking my foot into the grass. I was at a total loss at what to do with my dilemma. How was I ever possibly going to make it home to my own world - wherever that was, assuming that I was still even on it - with nothing on my being except a useless paperweight and an oversized egg. Apparently it was just a "normal" egg, but still. I had no idea what that meant, let alone that it seemed like my phone had literally spoke those words to me in its dying breath.

My eyes drifted to the egg that still sat in the same place where it had materialized. Which, by the way, I didn't think was even possible, even with today's technology.

I pondered, my thoughts rumbling ever harder for answers that I could not hope to seek by myself. I crouched to my knees in my reverie.

Lost in my inquiry, I failed to notice something headed straight for me from the tall weedy grass. And it remained that way until a loud growling pierced the air around me. I snapped back to reality and quickly stood, looking for the source of the disturbance. "What, is that…?!" I gasped.

It was a small, canine-like animal with fluffy black and blue fur and piercing golden eyes. It growled ferociously despite its stature. And then it clicked, it was facing _me_.

"What!" I yelped at the top of my lungs, echoing through the trees, as the puppy then came charging for me.

No time to weigh my options, I quickly scurried in the first direction that my feet happened to turn. The pooch was in no way fooled, however, as it stayed in hot pursuit. "This sucks!" I breathed through my teeth, only daring to look back for a second, and quickly regretted it. "How do I have such bad luck?!"

A loud, ear-splitting, gurgling scream erupted from my throat when I suddenly found a pair of sharp fangs digging into my ankle. Blood already began to seep into my sock as the canine's teeth only clamped harder around my skin.

"...train and capture… Micromon…"

"...passion… recklessly charge forward…"

For some reason, words and phrases from earlier had resonated with my heart. I bit my lower lip, stifling any further cries of pain, my fists trembling tightly, as I regained my posture. "He was right…" I muttered under my breath, the sounds of the growling hound still vaguely hitting my ears, "Leon was right…"

My fists tightened with a newfound resolve, all sense of trembling having ceased. I could feel a pair of eyes on me as the pooch released its hold and backed up slightly, studying me with a still-unwavering gaze.

I suddenly felt like I had been lost in the dark for so long, with no way to get out. "When had I become such a crybaby?" I asked myself quietly. "How long had I been searching for my former self…?" I continued to interrogate myself, all the while the pooch not relenting any further. Waiting for my next move.

My heart felt ignited, then, a flame burning brightly in my chest.

I stood my ground, a spark blazing in my eyes. "Junji Andrews…" I pulled my fist back, and the pooch suddenly yelped and braced itself, "Does not give up!" I yelled furiously, as my fist smacked into the skull of canine. It whimpered as it fell to the ground, seemingly limp and dazed.

My chest heaved with a sense of delight as I stood upright again, picking my fist up. I started back toward my egg-buddy, leaving the canine where it was on the ground.

I returned to my mysterious egg, and just as soon as I placed my hands on it to pick it up, there was a loud cracking sound. "Uh," I blinked, half in awe and half in flat-out bewilderment, "Now what?"

I truthfully and honestly could not believe my eyes as large cracks were digging their paths over the hard shell of the egg. I mean, I know something was probably going to hatch from it anyways, and I won't lie that in the seconds waiting to see what would come out of it, I tried to picture what kind of creature it would be through the power of my imagination.

_Uh… birds come from eggs, right? _I remembered the pure size of the egg itself. A large silhouette straddled into my mind, almost awkwardly, and revealed itself within a dazzling spotlight as an ostrich chick. My face began to feel deflated as it reflected my thoughts, just as the ostrich began to chase me around and peck at me.

I hurriedly tried to shake the thought out of mind, and let a shudder ripple up my spine as I nearly face-palmed. _I hope not… Hm?_ Another silhouette trounced its way into my overactive imagination. _What else comes from an egg?_ The silhouette dramatically revealed itself as a baby alligator, instantly chopping down on my hand as I tried to greet it. Hilarity ensued.

My head dropped in shame and partially humility at the workings of my mind. But just as another silhouette was trying to take the center-stage of my dream, the top half of the egg shell suddenly flew off and hit me smack in the face before falling gently on the grass. Now with a reddened mark spread across my face, I was fuming - pulled from my reverie, but fuming, at who could have hit me.

I looked frantically around for the culprit until my gaze slowly landed on the newly-hatched creature, and I was instantly reminded of my sister's phone charm.

Sitting on the bottom half of the eggshell, looking up at me with large blue-pupiled eyes, was a chubby muddy green-colored creature that very much resembled an anthropomorphic frog/ogre/monster-hybrid… thing.

_Huhh?_

I blinked, speechless.

The creature tilted its head at me, as if mimicking my confusion. It uttered a baby-squeak as it tried to climb to its feet, both donning three thick claws. It stumbled once before standing.

I quickly tried to think that this creature seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Finally, I gave a big shrug and decided to give it a try. It was worth a shot. "Uh?" I scratched my nose awkwardly. "Wh… What are you?" I looked straight at the frog-like creature. It stared back, admittedly kind of cutely. I sighed and attempted again, trying hard to enunciate my words as if trying to make it talk back to me. "What are you? You have to be called something." It blinked again, seemingly not understanding anything I said.

I hung my head, falling backwards to land softly on my butt in the grass, pondering what again to do.

Another moment blew by, tempted by a soft breeze that pushed gently against my already-unruly hair. The silence was broken then by a sound that seemed like a cross between a crackle and a sizzle, almost like an absorbing sound. It came from behind.

Shifting my body around, still sitting, I watched with wide eyes as the blue and black canine from before was sucked up in an intense blue light - strikingly similar to lightning, and disappeared, flying back toward an unfamiliar boy in the form of what looked like a small microchip. The boy caught it in his hands and inserted it into a blue device, not unlike a phone, seemingly not even realizing my presence.

I stood up, feeling strangely provoked. The little frog-thing, despite its babyish mannerisms, seemed to also get a bit worked up as well. "Hey! What are you doing?" I shouted. "What did you just do to it?"

The boy seemed to finally take notice of me, but he didn't make much of a reaction.

I urged again. "Didn't you hear me? What was that?"

The boy's gaze shifted down to the little frog-thing beside me just momentarily before he looked back up and started to turn away, wordlessly. I gritted my teeth, my fist tightening. "Hey, wait a minute! Can't you talk, you jerk!" I yelled at him with surprisingly about as much rage as I could muster. This guy was _really_ irking me.

Finally, the other boy turned back to me, a totally unlikable air about him. One hand suspended within a pocket of his pants, he called out simply, "Is that Grene yours?"

…_?_

"My what…?" I muttered under my breath with a gasp, before slowly aiming my gaze down towards the little frog-creature. I was going to assume that was what he was referring to.

I thought about my answer. _It had hatched from an egg that came out of my phone…_ I looked at the boy again. "Y-yeah, I guess… that's what you'd call it…" My voice drifted quieter and quieter, as I didn't want him to hear the second half of that.

The boy stared again, studying. Finally, he made a smug gesture. A smirk. He pointed directly at me, "You seem like a clueless Newbie Tamer. It doesn't even seem like you'd know what the Legion is." He was right, but I was fuming. "If you don't even know how to contain your Micromon…" My eyes widened with realization. "You're not going to make it very far."

_Micromon?!_ The word echoed in my mind ceaselessly. I knew the word - I knew the term, I had heard and watched the promotional video a gazillion times. And now… now, I was…

I couldn't believe it. _Micromon are real?!_ My gaze shifted down to the frog-creature, a 'Grene', and that boy must be a Tamer.

I was broken from my thoughts again. "I'll battle you with this Parco I just caught. Since I haven't trained it at all, it should be fairly easy for you to fight, right? If you do manage to win, I may be kind enough to give you a few more Tutorials," he said with a slight sneer, half-mockingly.

My fist tightened. I wanted to punch this guy in the face. "Don't mock me," I growled angrily, but I couldn't help but feel a little anxious as I turned to Grene. I had no idea what it could even do.

I gritted my teeth. Grene looked up at me, seemingly noticing my uneasiness, and gave an [encouraging] nod. I turned back to the other boy in wait. He tapped a button on the same blue device from before, and I could only watch in amazement as the fluffy black and blue canine was released. It instantly seemed to recognize me and its stance become taut at once.

I barked at it, "Go growl at someone else, you darn mutt!" I raised my fist with a harsh glare directed at it. Though it didn't run with its tail between its legs - I wouldn't expect it to - it clamped up.

The other kid smirked. "I watched you fight with it. You seemed pretty pathetic that time. Maybe it actually bit some sense into you."

My glared shifted its direction upward. "I don't care for any sympathy from you, I'm going to win this!" I stole a glance at Grene determinedly. "Grene!"

The stubby frog-creature jumped forward with an unexpected excitement for battle.

"Looks like you're ready, then," the other boy mumbled emotionlessly. He then shot an equal glare my way. "Parco, show those two how much more capable you are! Use Scratch, now!"

The little canine - Parco - sprang forward with little hesitance to its new owner's commands. It was racing towards Grene with a pretty impressive speed, who looked almost terrified like it was about to run back towards me.

_Uh oh, this isn't good…_ My fist trembled as I bit my lip. _I don't know anything Grene can do. But… _My eyes left Grene for a moment and landed on the other boy across from me. _He had said 'Scratch', right? Maybe…_ I looked back to Grene…

Parco lashed out with one of its forepaws, menacingly swiping its claws across Grene's face. The little frog-ogre whimpered timidly as it stumbled backward like a child having been pushed.

"Grene!" I called, my voice sounding both distressed and hopeful (for my plan). "Use Scratch!"

Grene stared at me hesitantly, waited until it received a nod of encouragement, and then got back up to its feet to attempt to execute the attack. It ran forward with one of its hands raised.

"Parco, Intimidate!" _Another attack?! What is this one?!_

Now I was really starting to wish I had gotten into Micromon sooner, like Leon had always said. I at least have some knowledge of all this stuff.

Once again, Parco did not hesitate. As Grene approached, it had ducked over to the side and stared at Grene intently. A glare, literally with eyes glowing a deep crimson, scared my little froggre in its tracks. I could visibly see a shutter ripple through Grene's skin as it turned its face away and cowered.

"Grene!" I yelled to my Micromon. "Don't back down now! You want to win, don't you? If you want..." I hesitated briefly, seeing the little green guy tremble. "To win, you have to have passion, and courage!" I surprised even myself that I was even able to say something like that, with how long I had been falling in the dark.

It seemed to have taken the other boy by surprise as well. At least, somewhat.

Grene stopped trembling. With a sudden burst of strong will and encouragement, it managed to Scratch Parco across the face, who was still beneath it, sending the little canine sliding back towards its Tamer. "Alright!" I cheered. "Bull's eye!" I made a gun with my hand and pretended to shoot it at Parco triumphantly.

The other boy grunted. "Don't get cocky, Newbie! That was only one attack, under the effects of Intimidate no less." He turned to his Micromon and lashed his arm out forward. "Don't let anymore connect, got it? Use Scratch!"

Parco uttered a growl of understanding, as it pushed itself up and shook out its fur. It raced forward once more with no lack of speed than before, bracing its foreclaws as it dashed.

Grene looked worriedly back at me for a moment. I nodded, determinedly. _Right, it worked last time…_ _So…_ "Grene, execute Intimidate, now!" I yelled, confidently.

_?_

_?_

At that moment, it felt like the whole battle was put on pause as _every_ participant suddenly stopped and stared at me. Being stared down by piranhas while I stood in my underwear.

Grene blinked at me, seeming to be at a total loss for what I had said.

The boy across from me burst out in a quick fit of laughter. The kind of laughter that one would break into after witnessing someone make a fool of himself. My cheeks blushed hot with rage, and slight humiliation. When the other kid finally calmed down, he spoke, "I can't believe you actually tried that…" He was still struggling to hold his stomach.

All sense of humiliation was gone now, my face radiating frustration now as I glared at the boy. "Shut up already!"

A few more uncontrollable giggles. He finally righted himself, and coughed to regain his composure. He looked at me. "Grene can't even learn Intimidate," he stated matter-of-factly. "At the very least, you could have called for it to use 'Turtle.'"

The redness in my face died a bit, as I donned a sarcastic expression. "Right~ Turtle. I'll know that next time…" I muttered to myself.

"Parco, use Scratch!"

My fist tightened. "Grene, execute Scratch!"

I watched eagerly as the two Micromon leapt for each other.


	3. Tutorial

**Chapter Three**

**Tutorial**

Grene bounced back in mid-air, its face scrunched into a grimace as Parco landed as well, on all fours, but noticeable winded. I was about to call out to my Micromon when something peculiar stopped me. I watched as a ripple - no, more like a glitch, erupted through my Micromon and then immediately bounced back as a zooming arc of blue lightning-esque energy behind me. The sound buzzed in my ears.

"Grene!" I shouted, trying not to sound too worried, as I turned to see where the energy was headed.

Unbeknownst to me, the eggshell seemed to be gone. The energy getting retrieved within a small source in its place. I ran up, my curiosity getting the better of me, just as the lightning energy disappeared. Lying on the ground was a tiny purple item with two golden stars on the front. I picked it up between my fingers as it reflected light, "A microchip?"

I heard a huff behind me and sent a sideways glare almost immediately back. "You really are a Newbie," the boy seemed to want to laugh.

Then I noticed that there were now several small items strewn across the ground in front of Parco. Most of them were small orb-like gray pods with a green center, but there were a few that seemed uncannily similar to a pile of logs. _Where did those come from…?_ I thought as I turned back to face the boy, still holding the microchip in my fingers.

The boy sighed. "Though you lost, I guess I'll be nice _this once_," he muttered. I shot him a glare, but stifled my voice from shouting _I never asked you to help me!_ The boy ignored me and pointed to the little stylized microchip in my hand. "That's called a Chip. Seeing that Grene was not caught in the wild, its data automatically gets stored within a Chip after hatching." I looked down at the shiny purple item again.

The other kid pulled my attention back up though. His finger moved to the scattered items now littering the ground. "That is collectively called Loot. The amount and worth of it depends on the defeated Micromon. You can get Loot by training against any other Micromon, be it wild or tamed."

I looked around. "...Why do some seem to be different, though?" I muttered more to myself.

As if on cue, the boy tapped a button on his blue device again, and recalled Parco, who shot back into it from a sudden burst of the blue lightning-energy. At the same time, all of the Loot seemed to fizzle out and disappear as well. "At acquiring some Loot, it will automatically be stored in your M-Linker as soon as you call your Micromon back. The orbs restore the health of whichever Micromon fought in the battle, the 'logs' as you see get converted into coins that you can spend on various items…"

I seemed to follow along rather well, except… One word caught my attention. "M-Linker…?" I interrupted, confused. I had no idea what that was. I didn't think I even had one.

The other boy raised his eyebrow, looking almost amused. He pointed again, with a nod. "That thing. Isn't that your M-Linker clipped to your belt?"

I was dumbfounded. I had attached my phone to my belt, but last I checked, it was completely out of commission, reduced to paperweight status. I picked up my phone, to inspect it once more, just to make sure nothing odd happened to it. I tried pressing the power button. Nothing happened.

"It is curious, though," the boy spoke again. "Even if your Grene hatched, its Chip still would have immediately been uploaded into your M-Linker…" He walked up to me, snatching my phone from my hands.

I tried to take it back, angry now. "Hey, that's my piece of junk!"

The boy pushed me off, ignoring my complaints, as he handled my phone curiously. "That's weird…" He muttered, almost gasping. I successfully snatched my phone back.

"What?" I half-pouted, fondling over my phone as it was treasure.

The boy shook his head. "That's your phone, right?" I nodded. "Typically, as soon as a Player creates their account - coming here for the first time - their phone is transformed into an M-Linker…" He lifted his up to show me. "M-Linkers act as a means to login and out of Pixekai, this world, as well as stores the Micromon on your current team, and player data, among other things…" He looked at my phone again. "Yours failed to do so."

I stared at him. Now, this was getting a bit much to understand. "So, you're saying, with an M-Linker, I can easily go back home, but since I don't have one, I'm stuck here…?" I asked loudly, exasperated.

He nodded simply. "I also don't see how you could possibly recover or use your Grene again, since you need one to summon a Micromon…"

I held Grene's Chip up in front of my face. After hearing that, I was now starting to miss the little guy, worrying that I may never see it again.

The boy sighed. He flashed the screen of his M-Linker towards me. "You can call me 'Ekus.' That's my player name." Sure enough, the screen said 'Ekus' right next to _name_, as well as a bit of other info about his avatar.

I nodded slowly. "Uh, sure…" I muttered, only half-paying attention. "I'm Junji."

Then, something seemed to don on Ekus, as his eyes suddenly widened with a thought. "No way…" He gasped. "Could you be an Organic then?"

I stared at him.

Ekus shook his head. "You just don't typically find an Organic wandering around, that's all. So much so, that they are basically just mere rumor created by some over-creative players."

"What is an _Organic_?" I decided to press.

Ekus looked at me. "Basically, from what I've heard, they are special players different from standard players and NPCs. Standard players are represented by an avatar in-game, NPCs are the 'natural' citizens found in this world. An _Organic_ on the other hand, is someone who had to come here from our world."

I looked at my hands. _So, if I get hurt here, that'll probably be it for me?_ I didn't want to think about it too much. I gulped.

Ekus suddenly chuckled, as if not believing a word of what he had just said. He doubled over and I shot him a glare. "What's so funny?" I growled angrily. "This isn't something I find very funny!"

His chuckling continued, making the scenario completely awkward. "Sorry… s-sorry…" He tried to say between breaths as he held his stomach. I wasn't near-expecting a full-blown apology from him, though. "It's just…" he hesitated, standing straight. "I'd never have imagined the very first player that I encountered to be an Organic of all things…"

My mouth dropped at his words. He had chastised me so much earlier about being a Newbie Tamer, when he wasn't much different himself. "Wait!" I shouted. "That means you're a Newbie as well! How do you know so much, then?" I fumed.

Ekus smirked, rolling his eyes dismissively. "I read the rules on the Net, obviously," he said simply. "Amazing what you can find on there."

I grumbled.

After a moment for everything to settle back into a calm silence, I looked back up to Ekus. "Hey, wait, then what were you doing out here originally? If you're a new Tamer, too, then wouldn't you have gotten a Micromon from an egg like me?" I blinked.

Ekus studied me for a moment. After a minute, he shook his head. "As much as I'd hate to admit it," he sounded grumpy. That made me retort with a scowl of my own. "I'm much like you, actually. I mean, I have an M-Linker, so that's fortunate. But whenever I came here, it said my data had been corrupted…" He held up his M-Linker again, showing a screen with Parco's info. "I was just lucky to find that Parco when I did."

"You said, corrupted?" I pondered.

Ekus shrugged. "Don't ask me what that's supposed to mean, because I'm not in the mood to tell you," he went silent for a moment. "Here, give me Grene's Chip." He held out his hand.

I frowned. "What? Why?" I asked defensively, holding said Chip tighter in my fist.

"Just give it to me," he shouted, prying it from my fingers after we stood there fighting with each other for a couple of moments. He inserted Grene's Chip into his M-Linker, another info screen popping up beside Parco's. He took an item out of the brown bag slung over his shoulder and inserted the nozzle into the side of the device. I walked quietly as he pressed a few on-screen buttons, and I saw Grene's health return to full. After that, he turned to face me, dropping the Chip back into my hand. "There. At least your Micromon is capable of fighting again. It deserves that much."

Silence.

"...Thank you," I grumbled.

Ekus' eyes widened for a brief moment, and then he smirked. "What was that? I couldn't quite hear…"

I interrupted, repeating loudly. "I said 'thank you' - there!" I shoved him.

We got into another fight, just wasting time pushing and shoving each other back and forth, attempting the punch the other.

A few moments later, I am sitting lazily on the grass, looking towards the sky, breathing heavily. Ekus, still standing, was doubled over, his hands on his knees, breathing just as hard. "New… bie…" He breathed between his teeth.

I growled right back, "You're one to talk!"

Suddenly, a fearfully huge shadow flew over us, drowning us in darkness for a couple of short moments it was so large. We shot each other a glance before looking in the direction it had flown off. "What, was that?!" I gasped.

Ekus numbly shook his head as he stared ahead. "You've got me…" he finally said.

We glanced at each other once more before making a mental agreement, _I'm catching it before you!_ as we both ran off in pursuit of the monstrous shadow.


End file.
